15th February 2018
Today was bright and clear and a gorgeous day, so we did
some catching up on things we had missed on Day 2 (heading out of Reykjavik).
We started with Hjalparfodd, a very pretty waterfall, although the road to the
fall itself was snowed under and hadn’t been ploughed, so we had to walk from
the main road! Luckily it was only about 500m or so.
Then we headed over to start the ‘Golden Circle’ with Geysir.
We stopped at the visitor centre across the road first. It was CRAZY. There
were all the usual day trippers, but also apparently lots of people and tours
who couldn’t get in yesterday because of the storm. So it was packed, as was
the Geysir area itself. It was cool though, the main geyser is called Geysir
and is actually where we get the word ‘geyser’ from! The steam rises off all
the hot pools, and then, every 8-10 minutes – WHOOSH! Water and steam in a
plume into the air. We were there a while waiting so we could catch good photos
of it all. I liked seeing the smaller steaming pools too.
Next, we decided to head to Gullfodd, a big waterfall just 10min
up the road from Geysir. We got to the carpark and drove round and round and
round… it was packed with so many other people! We were about to give up when
we realised there was another carpark which was actually closer to the falls 0
so we went there instead. We were glad we ticked them off the list, but with so
many tourists it was not a great experience. Especially as we had to go back to
the Geysir visitor centre for lunch afterwards.
After that hectic time, it was around 3, so we drove on to
Thingvellir NP. It’s not on a continent, it’s in between 2! There’s a rift
valley where the American and European plates have been pulling apart, at the
super rate of 3mm a year. It is 7km wide though at the moment.
We started at the visitor centre to speak to the rangers and
get a map – although it was very well signposted anyway! The recommended a
route, which we followed. We walked to Oxrarfodd, which was barely visible
through the ice, past where they used to drown the women, to Logberg, the site
of the law rock. They used to recite the laws from it and it was the site of
the first parliament in the world! I don’t think the actual rokc is there
anymore, but there is an Icelandic flag instead. We took a hiking path that
went over some small islands (although you could barely tell in all the snow),
past the Icelandic PM’s summer house, and the long way back to the car. It only
took an hour but it was super lovely, especially with the sun beginning to set.
After that it was about 5.30 so we took the 1.5hr drive to
the hotel, had a hotel dinner (again, but again very tasty) and get ready for
bed. Tomorrow is a big day!
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